Reference is hereby made to a Disclosure Document of the inventor deposited at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Apr. 2, 1984 and accepted under the Disclosure Document program (Deposit No. 126, 115). It is hereby requested that this document be preserved beyond the two year period
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for stretching garments. Many garments are made from textiles such as common denim which shrink during washing or drying. It has become fashionable to wear trousers, especially those of denim, in a close or tight fit. A common method of producing a tight fit has been to don denim trousers after the same have shrunk, so that the shrunken trousers stretch again to fit the wearer's body.
The waistband of the shrunken trousers has heretofore caused difficulties in this procedure. Ordinarily, the waistband is reinforced and hence strongly resists stretching as the wearer dons the garment. Because the waistband offers greater resistance to stretching than the remainder of the garment, it has heretofore been difficult to attain a satisfactory fit. lf the trousers are shrunk to the extent needed for a close fit of the hips and seat, the waistband may be too tight and indeed may be impossible for the wearer to don and close.
Attempts to stretch the waistband manually before donning have typically been futile. Few wearers have sufficient strength to stretch the waistband manually. Although numerous devices for stretching garments have been proposed, none of these have provided a satisfactory solution to the difficulties discussed above. The devices heretofore proposed have typically been arranged to hold and stretch the entire garment, and hence are cumbersome and complex.